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Hejduk shares favorite Landon Donovan story

Hejduk shares favorite Landon Donovan story

Crew Brand Ambassador Frankie Hejduk's career intersected with Landon Donovan many times, from Bayer Leverkusen to the 2002 FIFA World Cup to Hejduk's late-career tenure with the LA Galaxy. The two also played together in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, where Hejduk recalls one of his favorite Donovan stories.

"[Donovan] was always staying after," said Hejduk. "He was always hitting balls after training. Guys were always on the bus and he was always the last to come on. I was going, 'Man, who is this guy? Does he think he's a superstar?' So we started joking, 'Hey, Superstar! Come on, get on the bus!' It became a thing that Olympics where it was something that I had already foreseen that ended up happening, because he did become a superstar. That name stuck with him forever.

"At the beginning, he was like, 'No, you have to stop calling me that,' but it stuck and everyone would laugh about it. It became just a funny thing in that tournament, and we had a great tournament ... In that tournament, he did what he always does. He came in and scored goals, and you saw a glimpse of him being a superstar in that tournament. That was the first time that I saw a glimpse of him as a player, and I went, 'Wow, this kid's going to be something special.' It turns out that he did. I still to this day call him 'Superstar,' and I know that Gregg [Berhalter] calls him 'Superstar' too. It's stuck with him for all these years and he's deserved that name."